Looking to book a trip to France and would like to see the country side and wineries, where do you suggest? We have 6 days and would like to enjoy them rather then run around. Bourdeux, Burgundy area or southern france? Any suggestions would be appreciated... Also, where is best to fly into? Is it reasonable to drive from Paris? Sorry so many questions... trying to book for next week.

thanks!

Ya know - on this short a notice, I might first find out <u>where</u> I can book flights into and then plan the trip from that.

If you do end up flying into Paris - you can take the train to most anywhere and pick up a rental car there.

Thanks Janisj...most of the flights are into Paris, but I am not sure if it makes more sense to train to these areas and then rent a car? Paris seems so far...

Yes but on high speed trains you can get around pretty quickly.

Maybe I am used to trains in Italy which are always longer than you plan for... What is the website for checking train times?

for schedules and timetables: http://www.sncf.fr/indexe.htm

You can find hotels by clicking on maps here :http://www.the-languedoc-page.com/to...-in-france.htm

Peter

Fly into Paris and go to the Loire Valley.

Easy, you take a TGV from Gare de Lyon and in1h40 you are in the heart of Burgundy and its capital Dijon. Bordeaux is about 3h from Paris.
The wine coast is between Dijon and Beaune(the greatest wines, according to my hubby are between Dijon and Nuits St Georges ie 30km of vineyards and nice little villages on the « C&ocirc;te de Nuits ») Beaune is great as it is dedicated to wine so you don’t have to walk far to find caves and march&eacute;s aux vins to taste wine.
http://www.terroirs-b.com/english/wi...cote-nuits.htm
http://www.burgundywine.net/

coco

Thank you for your feedback!

Coco - we can take the TGV from CDG to Gare de Lyon, is that correct? Or do we take it to Dijon? With 6-7 days would you stay in just that one area or try to cover another area as well, such as Loire Valley?

There is no TGV between CDG and Gare de Lyon only RER and M&eacute;tro. You can take a direct TGV to Dijon from CDG but there is only one that leaves at 7.25pm and arrives at 9.20pm. Otherwise there are about 20 TGV plus &quot;normal trains&quot; (3h trip)from Gare de Lyon.

Burgundy has 4 departments, C&ocirc;te d'Or with Dijon, Sa&ocirc;ne et Loire with Chalon sur Sa&ocirc;ne, Ni&egrave;vre with Nevers and Yonne with Auxerre and they all have something special so even a month wouldn't be enough to see them all.
And if you like nice countryside you can add Franche Comt&eacute; region with departments such as Doubs with Besan&ccedil;on and Jura with Dole.
If you like architecture and good food Dijon is a good base and it is easy to get a train or a bus from there to travel around.

We justy returned from 2 weeks in Burgundy &amp; 2 weeks in Beaujolais. Like Coco said, you could spend a month in this region &amp; be active every moment of the time (we were).

Lots of chateaux, abbeys, cute villages, scenic drives, beautiful cities, etc.

Beaune &amp; Dijon are only about 40 mins apart by car, and 20 by train. As I stated in a prior post, Dijon is amazing - our favorite city outside of Paris. From there, you can visit a lot of places. Our second favorite city in that region was Auxerre. Besancon is quite nice also (visited it on a prior trip).

I would recommend basing in Dijon - staying at Coco's place
http://www.myhomeindijon.com/

There is a 6:30 am TGV that goees to CDG on week-days. There is a 9:00 am train on weekends.

We took the TGV from CDG to Lyon, &amp; departed on the TGV from Dijon.

We stayed in a Gite (house) near Beaune. Lots of great wine &amp; nice things to see south of Beaune also. Pick up the &quot;Owl walk&quot; book at the Dijon tourist office (4E), and follow this route. While at the tourist office, also pick up &quot;Route des Ducs de Bourgogne&quot; which has 17 chateaux or abbeys you can visit. Save your ticket from the first site you visit &amp; you will get reduced tickets for the remaining sites. If you want to visit Chateaux south of Beaune, pick up &quot;la Route des Chateaux en Bourgogne du Sud&quot; at the tourist office also.

Alsace is another very itneresting area with a focus on wine.

If you have visited a winery in the Napa/Sonoma wine growing regions, the wineries in France are not as &quot;accommodating&quot; as the ones in the US are.

Stu Dudley

Thanks Stu
You can see the itinerary of the castles here
http://www.chateauxcountry.com/html/itinerar8.html
http://www.routedesducs.com/ in French

What to do and see:
http://www.cotedor-tourisme.com/inde...=en&amp;rub=05
BTW the owl's trail brochure is 2 euros only ;-)
Voil&agrave;!
coco

Just in case the OP is not familiar with Paris -
there is a train station IN Paris called &quot;Gare de Lyon&quot;.
This is quite different from the train station in the CITY of Lyon.

&gt;&gt;BTW the owl's trail brochure is 2 euros only &lt;&lt;

You're correct - as usual. I relied on my memory - I should have reached over to the table next to me &amp; retrieved the book instead - it says &quot;2E&quot; on the cover.

Auxerre also have an excellent walking itinerary, which you can pick up at the tourist office.

Stu Dudley

OK..now might be going to Normany first, can we take a train to Normany and from there or would driving be reasonable from Normany to Burgundy?

primitivo I don't get you!
Do you want wine regions or cider regions? :-?
It is quite a long way between Normandy and Burgundy...

Hi Coco, I understand...but we would only be going to Normandy for the history of the area not the wine! Deciding whether to go to Burgundy or Bordeaux from Normandy. Me and DH enjoy the wines of Bordeaux...so I am leaning towards that especially if that area is more inviting to tasters... input? I heard that Normandy is a good cheese area??

If you're looking to fly directly into la France prof0onde...look into Ryanair's or EasyJet's schedules. It's possible to fly to London and catch an inexpensive flight to a regional city. One avoids Paris this way, if you have no interest in visiting the city.

I've visited most regions in France. Everything I've read about Bordeaux has NOT pursuaded me to visit there. Dusty, not-so-nice villages, villages not propering from the wine trade are a few of the comments I've read in various travel books. I've visited the city of Bordeaux, however, and it is not one of my favorites (Dijon is MUCH more interesting).

Prior to my very first trip to Europe in '76, I visited the French tourist office in San Francisco. I told them I wanted to tour Bordeaux. He pursuaded me to visit Burgundy instead - he said I would enjoy it much more than Bordeaux.

BTW, I don't know what type of &quot;history&quot; you want, but Burgundy has plenty of it. Much of Normandy was destroyed in WWII.

I would visit Burgundy, Alsace, Cote du Rhone before I would visit Bordeaux.

Stu Dudley